Escape
by Dannashin
Summary: Sgt.Johnson and his squad of marines are lost on halo and so is sarek 'Sunee and his. Will they escape with their lives? This is my first entry on Fan Fiction. Please read and review...... new chapter
1. Lost

Hello all. This is my first halo fan fiction, my first entry on and my first fan fiction soooooooI hope its a good start. All comments are appreciated, advice even more so. I've read all three books andsohave tryed to keep as true to the haloverse as possible. I personly think that my writing in this getts better asthe storyprogresses. The second chapter is nearlyfully written, so there won't be much of a wait.

This is the first of my two chapters bacedon the events of "the flood". Hope ye enjoy.

Non of "Halo: combat evolved"or the three officialbooks baced on itbelonges to me yarda yarda..

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Sub-Chapter 1: A hasty retreat

The Elite screamed in agony as lead projectiles mercilessly tore apart his stomach, in seconds he hit the floor, dead.  
"whooraaaa!" shouted PFC Adam smith, pumping his arm into the air.  
"Don't get cocky now; we've still got to find that damn grav lift" Growled Sergeant Johnson. The marines viewed the aftermath of what had just been a tremendous fire fight, it was a scene of relentless gore; pools of purple and orange blood, elites torn clean in half by fragmentation grenades, grunts riddled with bullet holes and jackals with missing or mangled limbs. The sight that chilled them the most, however, was the smouldering corpse of Private Fitzgerald. The human squad of six had ambushed and annihilated a covenant patrol of almost triple the size, with only one man K.I.A. Had they not lived it, they would have not believed it possible.  
"What are we gonna do about Fitz?" said one of the two heavily armoured ODST's: Jerry Reid. "Poor bastard didn't stand a chance, grenade strait the face".  
"We're behind on the mission time as it is…….. But he was one of us, he deserves a proper burial" Johnson said more to himself than any one else, lost in thought. "Ok. Damien, Harold, drag his ass over to a nice patch of dirt, dig a hole and toss him in". "Sir" complied the marines in unison "Jerry, Adam, make a defensive parameter."

A few hundred meters away high Major Sarek 'Sunee and his squad of restless grunts also set up a temporary camp. This was to be 'Sunee's final mission as a mere front line lackey, after this mission he would have completed enough operations to become a spec. Ops commando; an honour that only a mere 1533 (he had researched each one with pride) had been gifted with. Yes, this mission would be a success unlike any other.  
"errrrrr your greatness?" enquired glorp, the major grunt of his squad "sir……….. Our orders?".  
'Sumee clashed his mandibles to awaken himself from the daydream, his visions of the ceremony seiced to be and where replaced by a cold dark and rocky surrounding. How could he let himself lose focus like that? never mind, I won't have to wait to long, he thought. He turned to the squat red grunt and motioned him away with a flick of his wrist. The truth was that he didn't know their orders either, the squad had been thrown together and sent into action with worrying haste.  
A few feet from the main position lired and gregt sneakily shared a ration bar, guard duty far from their minds.  
"Captain split chin seams a little distracted, he's gonna get us killed if carries on like this" squeaked lired, with a mouth full of methane rich gruel.  
"I know what ya mean slurp glorps talking mutiny and I think he's serious" said gregt.

"Mutiny? He's crazy!……….though he has a point, the stupid lizard's had us walking in circles for quad moons"  
"But only the five of us against a highest ranking red, he'd eat us alive"  
"It's been done before…"

Damien was fast getting sick of this mission. He and the rest of the squad where lost in a maze of canyons and valleys, they where low on ammo, the grav lift they where supposed to start guarding over an hour ago was nowhere in sight and he was shovelling rock and soil onto the only person he really knew on the squad. Maybe if he had some of that armour the ODST across from him, Harold Neway, was wearing he'd feel a little better, Damien thought. But he knew he was stuck with his shitty anti-ballistics suit. "Hay Harold wanna try digging a lil faster, seems I'm doing all the work" Damien moaned.  
"Will you please shut the hell up complaining, that's all you've done since the beginning of this op and I'm starting to get tired of it." The ODST threw down his shovel threateningly, he had a reputation for being a very violent person.  
"Calm down you two, I know this missions getting stressful, but that ain't no excuse for going at each others throat, save it for the covenant, or I'll have to kick both your sorry hides!" Johnson was well known for both his light attitude and brilliant commanding abilities. Purely out of respect the two men fell back to their duties, though a definite grudge could be felt between them. Johnson was about to say something about kissing and making up when Adam shouted from behind. "We've got aload of Jackals moving up from the south, if they get to the hill, we're screwed!" He reported.  
"Shit! Haul ass marines, we're leaving." Johnson said with a commanding decisiveness in his voice "Everyone head through that small crevice the last patrol came from, Jerry, Harold cover our retreat".

Johnson and the other two leathernecks ran through the large split in the near by cliff face, while the two ODST's Steadied their MA5B assault rifles on rocks close the retreating paths entrance. Within secondsthe energy shield holding, bipedal bird aliens known as jacklasrained super heated green energy on the marine's position. Of all Covenant Harold hated Jackals the most; though these shields made them hard to kill, butin his mind it also made them cowards.

"Deflect this!" shouted Harold, priming then throwing a grenade, soon followed by Jerry. The Initial blast of the two grenades killed five of the ten, while shrapnel shredded another three. But before the ODST's even considered celebrating the surviving aliens where joined by a mixture of elites and grunts. Now blue plasma joined the deadly lightshow that took place above the human's heads. They had been pined down; they could no longer retreat. Had they have been able to see each others face they would have been able to see that they both shared a look of sheer terror. Harold heard an alien command and affirmative squeals, then the fire seized, the marines didn't know why but the fact that it had stopped was good enough for them. Both men jumped to their feet. Once above the rock they fired. The Covenant soldiers had been caught in the middle of trying to sneak up and flank the humans, the blue coloured elite who was leading the flanking operation barked in surprise, before feeling the force of bullets against his shield. The aliens where almost lined up on the ODST's right, dangerously close to Jerry. The elite in charge was turning round to give a scattering order when his shield died in a shower of blue sparks and bullets ate through his spine. The smaller aliens screamed in fear, their leader, a great warrior had just fallen by the hands of two humans, all was lost. Knowing that it would be a waste to take down each scurrying creature, the ODST's triumphantly rose from their cover and marched through the crevice.

Sub-Chapter 2: Living Death

The sent of flesh, blood and life hung in the air. The promise of feeding and spreading, the promise of for filing their hunger. From the smallest cracks to huge gashes in the earth they emerged. Their hunger driving them, they swarmed. The lifeless void approached, the flood drew near.

"Harold, hurry up with those goggles." Hissed Johnson . The ODST moved up font and made a detailed sweep of the area with the "eagle eyes 340.  
The crevice had lead to a small opening high up in a canyon, above was a starry sky broken only by a ghostly line- the other half of halo. Below, was what must have been 2 platoon's worth of covenant soldiers and a daunting display of armour. There was no real need for the goggles, all 5 humans could see clearly what was set out below them, it was as-if the gods where using this canyon as a giant pallet. Johnson cast his trained dark eyes over the mess of colour. The dark purple vehicles where on what seemed to be the back row, followed by hundreds of grunts- from yellow to black. Then a few lines of constantly jerking heads in a mixture of colours (the jackals) which crowded behind a single line of spiky behemoths (hunters). At the very front of the formation where the combat leaders, the muscle, the iron hearts: the elites. They stood tall, but seemed to have a strange uneasy atmosphere about them. Nothing about this formation made sense, thought Johnson, it was no attack formation………. it could be a defence formation, but it's set up was very sloppy………. And the elites looked almost scared, they usually knew no fear in the face of any enemy. This whole thing made Johnson feel very worried.

"holy shit" whispered Damien "a force that size could wipe out a small country………". He waited for acknowledgement, but received none as usual. Sgt. Johnson reached into a breast pocket and withdrew an old half chewed up cigar. To Johnson this little stub preformed two vital roles: one it helped him think in less than ideal situations, two it served as a reminder that regardless of how many "less than ideal" situations he'd been in - he was still living. "It seems that our old friends have a welcome party all nicely set out, but I've got a feeling it ain't for us……." Stated Johnson "Now we're getting out of here before….whatever the hells happening here happens". Harold motioned over to small rocky pass to their left that lead to an exit out of the canyon.  
"Hand signals only from now on men".

Sarek 'Sunee lifted his head high and inhaled. Something didn't smell right. There was a fowl stench in the air, not that sickly sweaty smell of the vermin humans but a smell similar to that of burning rotting flesh. He turned to Glorp and was about to confirm this when he remembered that gruntshad no sense of smell.

"Your excellency?" Glorp asked, a tell tail trace of anxiety and impatience in his voice "Sir, the troops and I are wondering what your pla-"  
"We must leave the holy world. Now"  
"Sir?"  
"Something unstoppable, something un-holy approaches."

"dose sir's promotion add to this decision?" glorp asked thinking the first reason to be a cowardly excuse. 'Sunee considered causing this little wheezing creature pain, but he then realised it spokepartlythe truth, for the first time in 30 ops he felt comradeship to glorp in some strange way.  
"That is true also and if you help me escape I'm sure there'll be a promotion in it for you, no more suicide missions and ultimate respect. All we have to do is get back to a curser". The grunt answered this by raising his pistol in the air, the covenant equivalent to "lets kick ass!", he didn't really understand what was happening, but it seemed good so he decided to go along with it . 'Sunee was about to do the same when lired burst round a rocky corner with alarming speed.

"Evil! Scary! Squad…… every one dead!" screamed the small grunt, who then curled up tightly into a ball and sobbed heavily.

"All? Those human vermin! I shall personally make sure they are skinned alive"  
"no….no humans…..the un-holy ones…those the forunner inscriptions tell of." squeaked the shivering ball. "So the flood are not just tales, humph it matters not. No enemy is invincible!" proclaimed the battle ready elite.  
In seconds the entire canyon range was engulfed by hundreds of separate battles, plasma lit the landscape while rockets and projectiles destroyed it. At this point all covenant cruisers had lift off the surface to avoid this hell, even the human controlled Truth and Reconciliation was ascending. Halo now truly belonged to the flood, they just had to clean up.

Sub-Chapter 3: Loss

Sgt. Johnson pointed at Harold and then to what looked to be a hair pin bend in the path. The ODST moved to the spot, peered round the corner and looked back with a nod. Next he repeated the orders to Damien and Adam, who moved to the spot in unison. To Jerry he only gave a backward glance before moving to the spot himself. Johnson got into position and turned around to give the follow up order to Jerry. He was surprised to find that an elite minus head and armour stood behind him.  
"JERRY!" Shouted Johnson with all his might. The armoured marine stood up sharply and surprised his aggressor, he then turned quickly to see what had got the Sarge so riled up. He was met with a wall of rotting luminous green flesh. Instinctively the human barged into the creature with all his might to get it away from him. It fell with a sickening thud

"sir? WHAT THE HELL IS THAT THING?" Damien bellowed. The marine spent the past 4 days in a make shift med-wing in "alpha-base", no one had even considered telling him about their new enemy.

"That son, was the flood parasite" stated Johnson, cigar in mouth.

"In the brief you said that we would only be facing the covenant, you lied" Snarled Harold "you knew that this place would be crawling with the flood, didn't you"  
"I did, Direct orders from Silva. He's kept us alive so far, I trust his Judgment." He calmly stated, staring Harold down. Damien was about to say something sarcastic when the flood rose again. It claspedthe copletely unawareJerry's helmet and spun it like an old plastic bottle top. A loud crack rung out through the pass, then a thud as Jerry's corpse hit the ground. The marines instinctively took up firing positions.

"Fire" Said Johnson without emotion. Then as if this word itself had pulled the triggers, 4 rifles immediately spat out a three round burst. The combat form was rendered completely useless by the bullets, it's controller terminated the spinal link.

"Fire!" Ordered 'Sunee. He squeezed the trigger of his rifle and glanced over to the two grunts on the opposite high rock. Glorp also with a plasma rifle opened fire first and chose his target second- it was the grunt way. Below him was a horrific scene, 3 grunts spurted blue blood like a fountain as a small round infection form tunnelled into their chests. He aimed for the closest one hoping it was not too late. Lired did just the same, but he was armed with a spiky needler. After each flood had been successfully popped, the three solders jumped down.

"Salvage what you can, the flood will soon smell us and send another wave." 'Sunee boomed in his usual low toned voice. He looked at the dead grunts for only a moment before kicking them over and retrieving any grenades or weapons that lay be beneath them. Next he rationed the grenades, eight for himself, two for Glorp and one for lired. He needed to think very carefully about the next step, arming himself and the grunts, his choice could mean the difference between life and death. This was going to have to wait though, he could smell the flood stronger than ever.

"Defensive positions!". The two grunts jumped behind suitable cover on opposite sides of the small canyon while Suka 'Sunee stood his ground in the centre.

All at once the second wave of flood burst into the small camp. A gibbering crowd of what used to be humans seemed to come out from thin air. Glorp opened fire, he now had more to fight for than ever: not only his life (whichhe was gettigvery tired of)but also a chance to free himself from these suicidal cannon fodder missions. He sent a volley of plasma at the closest combat form, the super heated bolts burned craters in it's armour, which continued to sizzle and melt even after the initial impact, eventually causing the creature's top half to fall backwards. The pitiful thing tripped over it's own head and gave up, the forms behind it trod it to pulp. They where getting too close, Glorp observed. He continued to fire at whatever was nearest but started to back up and attempted to tell lired to do the same. But his fellow grunt seemed to be in a trance, he just fired needle after needle almost robotically, causing the un-lucky vessels to explode in a rhythmic pattern. The canyon was lit by the violent pink explosions.

"fall to my position" ordered 'Sunee over the hiss of his overheated weapon. Finally back to normal, lired spun round and waddled back to his commander, followed by glorp who finished off a human form that was crawling up over to him. More appeared. Glorp and Lired got ready to defend their master to the death; with weapons raised they held their breathes and waited to get a good shot. The grunts listened as the flood wildly gibbered with excitement and then as their noise was drown out by a deafening roar by 'Sunee. The Elite stepped forward and discarded his plasma rifle, a combat form lunged at him with a long sharp bone of an arm. The elite grabbed the arm and snapped it like a rotting twig, then impaled the combat form with it, the creature's whole body convulsed violently, then died- again. 'Sunee lifted his head, two of his fallen brothers fell towards him. He grabbed a whip arm in each hand and dragged the flood down to the ground. To the left hand elite he gave a hoof through its occupied chest cavity. The right hand elite snapped off its own arm and delivered a bone shattering blow to the living elite with it's remaining arm. 'Sunee's shield flared blue then died, he stumbled backwards completely vulnerable. A volley of plasma and crystalline needles surged passed him and turned the flood form's upper body to a molten green goo. 'Sunee gave the grenade signal to the grunts, who activated two plasmas and threw them a few meters in front of their leader. The blasts incinerated about a dozen flood while three more carried on charging. Lired squealed in horror as, about 3 dozen more flood where reviled when the plasma mist fell.

Glorp glanced over to lired then Sarek, his fellow grunt smashed his needler to the floor and once again curled up into a quivering ball. Glorp just wanted to do the same, he wanted to give up and let death take him, he was tired of fighting, screw promotion. The grunt reflected on how much he hated the covenant: he didn't believe in their stupid paradise or their gods, he fought to protect his home world, if his kind didn't fight then it would be destroyed ……… though he doubted that it even still existed, it had probably been burnt long ago. He wasn't a cowered, if he had the strength of an elite he would fight with the heart of his entire race and his blinding desperation, but he was just a grunt, a lowly Unogoy. None of that mattered now however, five walking corpses where beating 'Sunne to death and would soon turn on him. He closed his eyes and simply sat, trying to imagine his home world, he hoped that when he died that he would return to it.


	2. Friendly fire

Sub-Chapter 4: friendly fire 

"Please repeat that message Polaski" Johnson said calmly. "Bravo advance 4, I have been ordered to extract you. We are to link up with the truth and rec. once clear of the blast zone. I am at 34,84 on the sit map, we've got a repeat transmitter going from a 40 meter range. Once you've reached that I'm going quiet. The covenant are scanning the airwaves as we speak. Got all that?" "Affirmative warrant officer, brew us up some coffee while your waiting, Out." Nervously joked Johnson.  
He looked over his men with his scanner to see how they where doing. Harold was in the best shape as usual, he stood; looking up at the opposite side of the ring world. Adam was covered in rotting blood both human and covenant, however other than a gash in his shoulder, he was fine. He was currently trying to clean all the goo off of his rife from when he had driven it into an elite's chest. Harold sat clutching his open flesh, alone as usual. He was by far in the worst shape, on account of a flood fired pistol round that had planted itself in his side and detonated, as they did. The roughly 3cm cubed hole had been filled with bio-foam to stop internal bleeding, but the marine squealed with every step……… not that that was anything unusual with Harold. Johnson chuckled to himself, which got strange stares from the men. But jokes aside, the man wouldn't last too long on foam alone. Johnson knew that the only hope Damien had was if there was a medic aboard Polaski's bird. "Looks like our lucks' finally getting better men. I've just had word that there's a pelican drop ship that's got room for 4, 50 meters from here. I can almost taste our freedom"  
"All due respect sir, but how the fuck are we supposed to find a single drop ship 50meter away when we couldn't find a god dammed covenant cruiser that was in plain sight" Damien moaned. Harold snapped. He withdrew his combat knife, barged into Adam, to knock him aside and put the sharp edge to Damien's throat in a motion that looked asif it had been rehearsed a thousand times. Johnson was completely shocked by the sudden outburst, he scooped up his rifle and aimed it at Harold.  
"I swear Damien, if you don't close your mouth this second, I'm gonna slice out your voice box a feed you to the flood an-" started Harold with a twisted smile on his face, which hovered above the marines left ear. Then his face turned to horror, he twitched, making a small cut in the paralysed Damien's neck. Then he fell to the ground as if his skeleton had just been torn out , just short finishing his last ever spoken sentence. Adam got to his feet and unclipped his side arm, aiming it at Damien, thinking he had shot the ODST. "I didn't do it! Look at his leg!" shouted the now even more heavily bleeding Damien. Both the Sergeant and Adam rushed over to Harold. They arrived just in time to see a bulbous infection form twist violently on the humans leg to brake the tendril it had just used to short circuit his brain and fill his blood with flood DNA, through the nerves in his leg. After doing this it then moved it's way up to his ribs almost seeming to hover, when there it revealed a razor like edge and began to saw through skin and bone. Adam was stopped from trying to grab it by Johnson.  
"Leave him. I don't want to risk contamination marine, plus he's as good as dead." Johnson turned his back to the horrific scene. "Finnish them, that's an order"  
Adam opened his mouth to protest but it was shut again in disgust as the balloon like creature tunnel into Harold's chest cavity, to become the sole operator of the once human body. Adam lined his shaking pistol up with Harold's head and fired twice, then aimed at the close to fully submerged parasite and emptied the entire clip into it, taken by both rage and despair. After the pistol had clicked multiple times, he threw it to the floor and doubled up, vomiting on the cold hard rock on which he stood.

The three humans stopped in suitable looking cover, Damien limped behind the other two and wheezed erratically, Johnson got to one knee opened a COM channel. "This is bravo advance 4 leader, to Polaski. We are within 35 meter of your bird and are approaching from the south. Out"  
"Bravo advance 4, this is Polaski. After this transition I am cutting power, I repeat cutting power until your arrival. We can't wait forever sergeant, you've got 30 mins. I'm sending Private Locklear to rendezvous with your squad ……… yes Locklear that means you can go and blow shit up…… Polaski out. Johnson clicked off his COM and sighed. He gave Adam the order to cover their backs. This meant the planting of all 9 of their "claymore V7's" and the wiring of all but 3 of their grenades; Johnson wanted this to be their final run and did not want to be flanked in the process. "Its do or die time men."

Glorp slowly opened one eye, he wanted to know why he wasn't dead yet. 'Sunee lay motionless on the floor, he was oozing with blood and surrounded by rotting corpses. But Glorp could see that the functional flood had gone. With this new revelation He spun to find lired also motionless, he quickly waddled over to the orange clad grunt. "Lired!" He squealed, while prodding his comrade's down turned face. He was asleep. Glorp was so happy he jumped up into the air before kicking the grunt awake. "what?….. is it my turn at the food nipple?" "Comon get up!". Lired shook his head and his eyes crumpled up as he remembered where he was.  
"I go see If master ok." said Glorp. He was very close to 'Sunee when he slipped on green blood and almost cracked his respirator. He re-righted himself and was greeted by the sight of about a hundred flood infection forms approaching the Elite's body. Glorp again jumped into the air but this time in pure fright Lired started to wail and threw his arms into the air. However before the grunts had time to do anything else the, flood where popped by two streams of green plasma. Both aliens stood perfectly still while their small minds tried to figure out what was happening, they watched on as two Jackals Sped over to 'Sunee and hungrily poked at his flesh. One removed his helmet and prepared to bite into his neck, a finishing strike. Lired and Glorp withdrew from their mental lapses and bombarded the Jackals with rocks, enraged by their savagery towards the fallen warrior. "Claws off, you stinky bird brain basted!" Lired shouted after hurling his empty needler at the closest vulture.

The two gold armoured Jackals shrieked in alarm and activated their shields, while opening fire in the approximate area the stones came from. The grunts dived for cover, Glorp threw Lired a grenade and showed him a count down on his fingers. Those damn dirty birds weren't gonna eat 'Sunne, thought Glorp; he'd fought with his life to protect the grunts, the least they could do was return the favour. The rock above Glorps head was crumpling, but he found courage from somewhere and continued to count down. 5.…4.…3.…2-  
"Cease fire at once, or I'll eat you both!" boomed a bodiless voice. The stream of fire stopped and the grunts peered over their cover to see both Jackals stood at attention. A blue Elite stood in front of them.  
"How dare you try to eat a fellow covenant, a ranking officer, a Sangheili elite before me!" The elite roared. "Then you fire the other two soldiers we're here to rescue? When we return I shall have you both dis-honrably discharged. One more foot out of line and I will snap your limbs and assure that you are infected by the flood and left to rot within the shells of your own bodies! Now, wake the officer". The Elite clashed his mandibles and strode over to the grunts hiding spot. They looked at each other then got out of cover.

"My apologies, these Jackals are entrust worthy, if you would like I'll let you be the ones to kill them when we get back to the ship"  
"What Ship, your mightiness?" enquired Lired with a glimmer of hope in his voice. "The great ship master Orna 'Fulsamee has a vessel still docked here on the ring world, he is taking aborde everyone he can, before taking off. Truly a hero." A Jackal screeched to get their attention 'Sunee now stood. He brushed off skin and bone from his crimson armour and re-booted his shield. After his shimmering blue shield engulfed him, it became transparent.  
"You have my thanks brother, my grunts and I would have died where it not for you"  
"It is my duty, I need no thanks, sir. A ship is waiting for our return, I have orders to escort any survivors back to it". 'Sunee could hardly conceal his joy. This was it, once he was aboard the ship he would be rated as such to be promoted. He began to imagine what the black or purple armour would look like on him and how strong the shield out put would be, but was shortly interrupted by the blue Elite.

"However... I am not to escort anyone who has not met their mission parameters, may I see your mission log sir". With these words 'Sunee's visions of cutting down humans in his new black armour seemed to fall away from him, into nothingness. He had nether mission log or a completed mission parameter, he was doomed to a public execution spend the rest of his natural life on this ironically named hell, he'd be a zombie within hours. He could lie and say he did the mission but lost the log….no then he'd be tolled to find it. It was all his fault in the first place, because of his stupid day dreams he hadn't heard the objective briefing and left the grunts carrying the log on their own, grunts who where easy pray for the flood. This decision would now ultimately decide his fate, he was to either die or do something about it. 'Sunee reflected on the covenant oaths he'd broken already, this was a desperate situation, one more broken oath wouldn't hurt.

"Sir?" asked the Elite, growing impatient. 'Sunee clashed his mandibles, his decision had been made "The major Unggoy has it". Glorp looked at 'Sunee with great alarm, but remained silent. The blue Elite's impatience faded and he strode towards Glorp, who began to back up in confusion. 'Sunee bent low and retrieved his old empty rifle, he once more tried to consider any more options; other than laying down to die, there was none. The high major ran toward the lesser elite and grabbed his head before quickly delivering a spine shattering blow with the front of the gun, into the centre of his back. The four smaller aliens watched the scene of seemingly random murder with open mouths. Unsure of their reaction 'Sunee turned as the other elites body fell, and aimed at the Jackals. "If you wish to continue living your pointless lives, I suggest you speak not of what I have done and follow my orders from now on." Ordered 'Sunee, now advancing on the trembling creatures. They quickly stood to attention.


	3. Cross fire

All righty, thats my big fight chapter done. There will be one more chapter but it will only be short (not that different from the rest but o well). With that said,Enjoy read and review!

* * *

Approximately 25 meters from the trap grid Johnson was forced to stop again. Adam and Damien who where acting as crutches for one another slumped to the floor. For once Johnson actually felt sorry for Damien, not only because of the hole in the side but the fact that he had to lug the extra equipment to maximise the squads overall manuvrability. This however was not his reason for stopping, they had hit a sheer drop with two behemoths at the bottom, luckily they had been distracted for the moment the sergeant peered over he drop.. 

"why we stopping sir?" wheezed Adam.  
"shhhh!"

The mouse ran away from Tasseil's sheild in pure fright, he chuckled and moved it into the rodents new chosen path. All of a sudden Dasseil jumped up, very fast for a creature of such immense weight and stomped down on his bond brothers shield arm.

"My pray!" roared Tasseil deeply, sounding very hurt and offended. "Forget it brother, I heard the voice of a human…….bigger pray" spoke Dasseil quietly. Tasseil huffed and stood, as if letting the small creature go had physically hurt him. Their supervisor, a white clad elite, noticed the sharp change in the hunters mood and got to his feet. He knew that however stupid or clumsy they could be, their senses and impulses never let them down. It was just a shame he had no translation kit. In unison the hunters pointed to the left hand ledge. It was clear that their leader understood as he unclipped two plasma rifles and clashed his mandibles in excitement.

Johnson nudged the barrel of his rifle further over the edge of his rocky cover, confident that he was still invisible to the aliens not to far below. A white elite…. He must be one hard core son of a bitch to earn that privilege, seemed almost a shame to stain that purely white armour with it's wearers purple blood…..almost. A loud crack thundered through the air and a stream of white flashed towards the Elite, then reflected at a 45degree angle from his head. The Warriors shield crumpled like paper around his head, but held and reshaped. Johnson cursed and fired again as the elite shook his head and the hunters warmed up their cannons. This time the round shattered the shield like thin blue glass and the elite dived for cover, obviously in the knowledge that he would not take a third shot and live. Damien and Adam took up firing positions on the lip but where thrown from them almost immediately as the sergeants position disappeared in a blinding green explosion. Luckily Johnson had dived for cover just about the same time as the elite but was covered in rubble. Damien rose first, with a grenade in his hand, thinking himself safe by the sound of the unready charging guns.  
"DIE DIE DIE!" He screamed. He pulled the pin and threw without really looking, the second it left his hand he was thrown to the floor again, this time by a plasma bolt in his left arm and side. No explosion. Johnson watched on helplessly, trapped on the ground as the man stood up laughing madly, flailing the stump of his arm. He withdrew another grenade, still laughing; laughter which caused blood to spurt out of his side each time. He clutched the pin within his teeth and ran, his laughs now sounding like hisses. He jumped and was shortly fired upon by the elite, before jerking his head to one side and pulling the pin. Three seconds later Damein landed on the head of a hunter and exploded. Shrapnel erupted from the grenades and lead burst from its casing within his backpack, the hunter's head was immediately torn from it's neck. The other was shielded, his only injury a stray 9mm round in his leg. The Elite's shield was again shattered into thousands of peaces, but this time he was hit, shrapnel covered his body on both armour and flesh. He roared in pain and pulled a sharp chunk of rock from his neck.

The Covenant squad marched in a silent formation, the horror of the flood almost forgotten, replaced with what they had just witnessed, or in 'Sunee's case, done.

"Glorp, once more ask the buzzards where their checkpoint is"  
"sir"  
"DO IT"  
Glorp shuddered, turned and stopped the two jackals who walked unnervingly close behind him. He put some distance between himself and them then engaged his translation software.

"errrr…… where….. Is…. Checkpoint ?" "Go jump off a cliff gas sucker" the tallest said, in the common jackal tone.  
"Or better yet go roast yourself and save us a job!" squealed the other.  
Glorp backed up in shock as they advanced on him; the jackals seemed to have lost all fear and sense, wild feral hunger caused their eyes to grow wide. Without thought to consequence the tallest threw his weapon into the air, deactivated his shield and pounced. He landed on Glorp's shoulders and kicked him to the floor with his powerful spring loaded legs. Glorp swung at the creature and hit him hard, but it had no effect. The attacker returned the favour and punched Glorp in the head. Glorp winced but did not back down, he brought his head far back then lunged forward with it. The head butt hit full on, Glorp temporarily lost vision in both eyes but his attacker had got the worst of it. The jackle lept off on the grunt, his snout bent at an unnatural angle. The other Jackal immediately rushed to steal the pray , he pounced but hit a metal wall. He looked up, the resistance was in fact 'Sunee who tuck only a moment for fear register in the jackals mind, before delivering a bone crunching blow to his chest. He spluttered then fell, dead. Glorp jumped up and punched the standing jackal several times onto of his snout. He was completely blind with rage, he hit scratched and bit until he was effortlessly dragged away by his superior.

"It seems we are both dammed now grunt" 'Sunne said to a speechless and blood covered Glorp, almost sounding as if he was stating the punch line of a joke. Lired now replaced the jackals in the back of the formation, he had been completely oblivious to the fight, until he was ordered to collect the arm shields from two jackals who had been alive when he last looked. He was not particularly bothered though, he infact felt a lot safer. A few hundred yards later this sense of security was once again ripped from Lired, a huge explosion shuddered the ground on which they stood. It was close.

Tasseil tried his best to ignore the pain in his leg while he limped over to what was left of his bond brother. Only chunks of steaming flesh and perfectly intact but hollow armour remained. He began an age old tradition, he picked up his bothers shield and hammered it vertically into the ground. He then looked up to where the human jumped from and hummed an old covenant hymn. Next he began his favourite part, revenge, he warmed up his cannon and began to disintegrate the earth above him. The white elite's sheild rebooted and he stood, his whole body ached and stung, but he could still kill, which was good enough for him. He picked up his rifle, looked at it, then put it back down again. He instead withdrew a small cylindrical object and griped it once. Pure Crystallised blue energy burst out either end of the handle and hummed softly. He clashed his mandibles with excitement.

Adam dove towards Johnson and quickly tried to free him before the green beam got too close. The sergeant heaved himself up with Adams help and they both withdrew from the ever decreasing lip. The fire stopped and alien voices filled the air.

'Sunee, Lired and Glorp all scrambled up a steep slope which brought them to the site of the blast. 'Sunee reached the top first and offered no assistance to the grunts, he instead ran towards the white elite he saw up ahead. "brother! How do you fair?" 'Sunee said light heartedly, finally seeing a familiar and trust worthy face.  
"'Sunee! No time for talk, I hope that you are the lost squad. If not I'm killing this vermin then heading out." The Spec op commander named Hatie 'Hanasee replied, seeming very preoccupied. 'Sunee thought it best not to question him, so he simply stood by him. Glorp and Lired caught up, they wheezed heavily from all the climbing, Lired pulled out his last ration pack and stuffed it into the feeding hole of his respirator; he paid no attention to the situation at hand. Glorp first noticed a hunter that bashed his own arm madly, the cannon glowed green but would not fire. It began to bulge at an alarming rate, the fool must have fired over the safty limit thought Glorp. The two Elites ignored Glorps attempts of trying to get their attention and instead they started to climb up a rock face. The hunter wailed madly and bashed the cannon more until gass started to vent with a defining hiss. Glorp kicked Lired out of the way and turned just in time to see a string of bullets hit the area vented area and ignite.

Johnson edged closer to the edge to see what the hell was causing all the hissing, when a marine appeared on the other side of the ravine. The man hand signalled for Johnson to move then started to fire down into the covenant. Johnson's instincts tolled him to obey, so once more he dove for cover. An almighty explosion sent sprays of orange and green goo into the air, which momentarily rained down on both human and covenant. "watch out, there's two split chins climbing up to your position. I'll hose the son bitches and buy you some time." Shouted the marine that just caused the explosion, he sounded like he was actually enjoying this Johnson thought, before laying flat to the ground with his sniper rifle before him.  
'Sunee tried his best to ignore what had just happened and just concentrate on getting to theses humans then getting home, but he was finding this hard as the rock was covered in blood and green liquid energy store and as there where bullets draining his shielding. 'Hanasee waited at the very top of the scale and pulled 'Sunne up to him. After a count from his commander he flung himself to the top, while doing this his shield failed. 'Sunee observed but saw nothing, until a white streak flashed by his leg, he had time only to bark in surprise as a second one hit him in the leg and swept it from underneath him. He tried to regain his balance but failed he plummeted. 'Hanaee was up now, a shot hit him in the head but he continued to run, his blade in a counter balance behind him. A second hit his chest and finished off his shield, there was no third.

Johnson franticly searched for a full clip, he rose to one knee and cursed with every offensive word he knew. He caught a glimpse of the charging elite, before finding his spare clip and jamming it into the rifle. He looked up with his site, ready to finish the elite but found Adam in his way.  
"MOVE!" Screamed Johnson knowing that this could cost them both their lives. Adam waited until the Elite was just within cat swinging distance and pulled the trigger on his weapon click. Empty.  
"namuh eid ot eraperp!" Roared the elite. Both warriors pounced at the other with their weapons held high. As if he was jelly cut by a diamond blade, Adam was sliced with laughable ease, So much so that the Elite actually did stand laugh. This was the biggist mistake the command would ever make in his life, Johnson stood, thrust the barrel of his rifle into the elites thought and fired. "That shut you up.  
Johnson didn't even check to see Adam's condition, there was no point; plus he knew the sight would give him nightmares until the day he died. "Sorry about him" Said Locklear who had some how gotten to Johnson's side of the ravine "The birds close, we can go if you want, probably before they attack again. I'd stay and fight but I don't think you could stand another." Johnson stood to face the marine and silently nodded, he wanted to make them pay for the men he lost. Be he knew that he would only end up as one more of the body count. The two humans swiftly followed the trail which lead to the Drop ship, Johnson tried to push down the horrors in his mind as he got in the ship. Leave them behind with the dead.


End file.
